Herman Miller warns; Rambus runs

ChrisKraeuter

NicoleMaestri

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Office furniture maker Herman Miller slashed its financial targets only four days before the end of its quarter and computer memory chipmaker Rambus extended earlier gains of 30 percent during Monday's late-trading session.

Herman Miller cut its financial targets as corporate clients have stunted expansion and cut spending. Shares reopened from a trading halt and fell more than 13 percent on light volume.

Rambus
RMBS, -1.14%
shares extended an earlier gain of 30 percent. After closing up $1.70 to $7.37, shares rose another 26 cents to $7.63 on Island. Intel announced a new high-end Pentium 4 microprocessor using Rambus memory. See full story.

Shares of Ulticom edged down 49 cents to $17.15 in evening action after the company posted an in-line quarterly report and named a new CFO. Shares rose 11 percent ahead of the news.

Sun Microsystems continued to be an evening mover, but traded flat at their Nasdaq close down 47 cents at $14.50. The computer hardware giant will issue a midquarter update after the close of trading Wednesday. Watch video brief.

After a push higher, the major stock averages ended the day lower with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, +0.35%
down 40.82 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 10,382.35. The Nasdaq Composite
$COMPQ
dropped 4.38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,912.42.

Investors will hear the August U.S. consumer confidence report Tuesday, the second-quarter gross domestic product report on Wednesday, personal income and spending on Thursday and factory orders on Friday. Read Market Snapshot.

Herman Miller

Herman Miller
MLHR, +1.05%
warned investors that its first-quarter results will be lower than expected due to declining corporate profits and slower office construction.

Revenue for the quarter ending on Sep.1 is now targeted at $405 million to $420 million with earnings of 2 cents to 7 cents, excluding any charges for restructuring.

Ulticom

Ulticom
ULCM
reported second-quarter net income of $4.2 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with net income of $1.7 million, or 4 cents per share, in the year-ago comparable quarter. Analysts were expecting earnings of 10 cents per share, according to the consensus estimate of those polled by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Revenue for the maker of telecommunications and Internet communications software rose to $17.9 million from $10.6 million.

In a separate release, the company said it named Mark Kissman to the post of chief financial officer. David Kreinberg, who is CFO of Ulticom's parent company Comverse Technology
CMVT
and was serving as CFO to Ulticom, will continue to serve as a director.

Shares of Ulticom closed up $1.74, or nearly 11 percent, at $17.64 ahead of the report. On Island, shares fell 49 cents, or nearly 3 percent, to $17.15.

Kraft Foods

According to a Kraft statement, the brand was introduced in April 2000 and had one-year retail revenue of $36 million. The brand includes six varieties of single-serve pasta meals, which can be microwaved.

Kraft shares ended down 5 cents at $32.30.

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems
SUNW, -2.44%
will offer an update on how its first quarter is progressing during Wednesday's evening session. Shares were down nominally late Monday after closing off 3.1 percent to $14.50.

In mid July, Sun posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, although revenue dropped dramatically from a year earlier. Sun, in part, credited its fourth-quarter results to streamlined operations and the company has continued to cut costs since that report.

At the end of July, Sun said it would cut 300 jobs by the end of the year, calling the plan a "redeployment" rather than a layoff and shut down operations and required employees to take vacation during the first week of July.

When Sun gave its fourth-quarter report, it declined to give specific revenue targets for the first quarter, saying it would provide a better range at the end of August. Analysts, on average, currently expect Sun to earn 2 cents per share on revenue of roughly $5.05 billion, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.

Shares closed down 47 cents, or 3.1 percent, at $14.50.

HPL Technologies

HPL Technologies
HPLA
delivered its first quarterly report as a public company. Shares of the semiconductor systems firm were not active after closing flat at $12.64.

HPL Technologies reported first-quarter net income of $426,000, or 2 cents a share, on revenue of $5.56 million. During the same quarter last year, net loss was $261,000, or 2 cents a share, on revenue of $1.92 million.

Excluding one-time items and amortization, net income was $1.4 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with pro forma net income of $443,000, or 2 cents a share, during the same quarter last year.

HPL completed its initial public offering on July 31 by selling 6 million shares at $11 each.

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